Building block or brick



May 30, I1939. J. IBANTWELL i .2,160,792

' BUILDING BLOCK 0R BRICK Filed Maron 1, ,193e 4 sheets-sheep 1 v May30, 1939- J. J. CANTWELL.

"BUILDING BLOCK 0R BRICK 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March l, 1958 -mlm May30, 1939. J. J. CANTWELI.

BUILDING BLOCK oa BRIGK Filed March 1', 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet I5 y May 30,1939.

J. .1. CANTWELL 251,130,792

BUILDING BLOCK OR BRICK Filed Maron 1, 1958 4 sheets-Sheet 4 PatentedMay 30, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Speedbrlk Corporation,

Wife

a corporation of Dela- Application March 1, 1938, Serial No. 193,337 4Claims. (Cl. 'l2-41) This invention has reference to improvements inclay building blocks or bricks, such as are generally used asconstruction units in erecting Walls, laying oors or pavements, and inother species 5 of brick work. i

In brick wall construction, the various Wall Vunits are known either asheaders or stretchers, in accordance with the manner in which they arelaid relative tothe wall: a header being a brick laid lengthwise alongthe thickness of a wall, and a stretcher being a brick laid lengthwisealong the face or length of the wall. A range of bricks on the samelevel in a wall or building is known as a course. The method ofarranging headers and stretchers in superposed courses to bind a walltogether is known as bonding. Various types of bonds are available tothe industry and are usually known by names descriptive of the mannerinwhich they are combined, such as m running bond, cross-bond, herringbond, or by names denoting countries in which they are supposed to be inuse, as American bond, English bond; Flemish bond, Dutch bond, etc.

These various types of bondsoier a wide choice g5 of wall facing designsranging from the simple type, such as the stretcher-bond in which thebricks are laid lengthwise in successive courses, the joints of the onefalling at the middle of that above and below, to the more ornamentaltypes l0 such as the Dutch, English and Flemish bonds in whichcombinations of stretchers and headers are used. 'I'hese bonds differalso in respect to their individual requirements of time, labor,material and craftsmanship necessary for the proper development thereofand also in respect to the degree of waste occasioned bythe necessity offracturing the standard sized commercial brick into the smaller sectionsneeded in the more elaborate bonds. It will be apparent, therefore, thatin the 40 choice of selection of one type of bond over the others, theserequirements of time, labor, material, etc., with the attending costs,are important and deciding factors. Special designed units of a widthequal to the 4 5 width of the requiredwall and formed with vfalse mortarjoints to simulate a plurality of` bricks or blocks are old in the priorart. Such special units are primarily designed to lower the cost Iofbuilding by reducing the number of units necessary` to form the wallwith a consequent decrease also in the number of zmortar joints. Forwallsfacing purposes, they are restricted to the uselof not more thantwo ofthe six possible brick surfaces, due to the incongruity of theother surfaces relatively to the wall facing. They oifer no choice orselection withrespect to the various types of standard bonds but are, bystructure and design,

more or less restricted to a single conventionall bond.

It is therefore, an object of the present invention" to provide a wallunit of a novel generic design for use in Wall constructions, whereby aWall constructed of a number of such units laid in a conventional andinexpensive bond in stretcher courses, may simulate in appearance abrick wall in which the bricks are laid in a more ornamental andexpensive bond.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved and novel typeof wall unit which is adapted for interior and exterior facings andwhich is reversible end for end and side for side, so that any one ofseveral selected types of bonds may be simulated in a wall formed of agroup of such units. A

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved wall unit ofthe above-described character and design which can be economicallyproduced by known manufacturing processes in large quantities and invarious sizes to conform to the width requirements of different wallsand other brick work and which is specially adapted for low costbuilding projects.

The foregoing objects and advantages are attained by the use of thenovel building block or brick of the special design and construction`hereinafter more fully described and explained, with reference to theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the improved wall unit of vthe inventiondesigned for ,furring or veneering purposes;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of ajcorner section of a veneered wallconstructed ofnbricks of the typeshown in Fig. 1, laid in a Dutch bond;

Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section on line 3 3 of Fig. 4 is aperspectiveview of an improved wall unit having substantially the samecharacteristics as the unit shown in Fig. l, but of greater of Fig. 11.

In the following description, reference to/a standard commercial brickshall be understood to mean a clay brick eight inches in length, two andone-quarter inches in height, and four inches in depth.

In all of the various forms illustrated in the accompanying drawings,the improved construetion unit of the present invention comprises vablock or clay brick A of a height equal to the height of a standardcommercial brick and of a length equal to one and one-half times thelength of the said standard commercial brick, the units to be laid instretcher courses yet capable of producing various bond effects. For thepurposes of the invention, the brick is formed with its side surfaces aand b and its end-surfaces c and d of substantially correspondingexterior finish, whereby any one of the said surfaces is adapted toserve as the face of the brick. 'I'he brick may be formed as a solidunit or it ay be hollow, as illustrated, with vertical cross webs I2dividing the brick into vertical voids I8. It may also be provided withrows of vertical holes I 6 as shown in Fig. 7 to lessen the weight ofthe brick, 'if so desired. Generally, each unit will be constructed of awidth equal to the depth of the particular wall for which designed.

A type of wall unit particularly adapted for furring or veneeringpurposes is shown in Fig. l.

This unit has a length of twelve inches, a height of two and one-quarterinches, and a wall depth of four inches. The surface a is divided intotwo unequal sections by a vertical dovetail groove I8 which, whenpointed up or lled with mortar, constitutes a false mortar joint. Thisfalse mortar joint is spaced inwardly of one end of the brick for adistance corresponding to the thickness or depth of astandard commercialbrick, i. e., four inches. By reason of this division, the side a of thebrick has the appearance of a standard sized header 20 and stretcher 22laid in coursey with` the lusual mortar joint therebetween. In usingbricks of this type as a Veneer or. facing for a rough wall orpartition, such as indicated at 24 in Figs. 2 and 3, the bricks are laidin a simple stretcher bond, that is, lengthwise in successive courses,the joints 26 of each course being staggered with respect to the joints26 of the courses above and below. At predetermined courses, the brickwall is anchored to the back wall by metal wall ties 28. In laying thebricks, any one ofseveral diierent types of bonds may be simulated inthe face of the wall without alteration or deviation from the lengthwisedisposition of the bricks in the various courses. For a simple stretcherbond, the bricks are laid in the customary courses with the sides bdisposed outwardly. Each rvcourse will then appear to be composed ofstretchers. If, on the other hand, it is desired to simulate a Dutchbond, wherein only every other course is composed of stretchers whilethe remaining courses are composed of alternate headers and stretchers.the sides b of the brick will be used as the facing only in thestretcher courses and the sides a will be used in the headerstretchercourses as illustrated in Fig. 2. It will'` Aoi" six inches in depth. Asection of a brick wall constructed of bricks B laid in a simplestretcher bond, but simulating a Flemish bond, is illustrated in Figs.and 6. In the Flemish bond, each course is composed of alternate headersand stretchers, and this eiect is simulated by laying the bricks B withthe divided sides a having the false mortar joint I 8' serving as thefacing of the wall throughout all the courses; the 4 x 21A headersections 20 of the bricks being disposed between the 8 x 21/4 stretchersections 22 of the bricks, as illustrated. In this arrangement of thebricks B, certain of the vertical true mortar joints 26 are paired withthe false mortar joints I8, to

ngive the appearance of`header bonds between the bricks. By reversingthe bricks in every other course to present the sides b to the face ofits wall, so thatv such courses appear to be composed only ofstretchers, a Dutch bond will be simulated.

For a wall depth of eight inches, the brick C shown in Fig. 7 may beused. Aside from the increase in depth to eight inches, and theprovision of a vertical false mortar joint centrally of the end C, thisbrick is substantially the same as bricks A and B. The false mortarjoint 28 at the end of the brick serves to divide the end surface C intotwo equal sections or headers, and is eiect, particularly in thesimulation of a Dutch bond, as illustrated in Fig. 8. Its use isoptional, however, and it may be entirely eliminated from the brickwithout impairing the utility of the latter or restricting the usethereof in any manner. Various bonds may be simulated by the use ofbrick C in a manner or method similar to that explained inconnection-with the previously described bricks.

A type of brick especially designed for use in simulating an Englishbond is shown in Figs. to 12 inclusive. This particular type, indicatedat D, corresponds in dimensions to the brick B shown vin Fig. 4, but hasits corresponding side a divided by a pair of vertical false mortarjoints I8 into three equal sections 28 corresponding to conventionalstandard headers. This is in conformity with the requirements of theEnglish bond, which consists of courses of headers and courses ofAstretchers alternately superposed. When disposed in a wall, sothat'theunits of alternate courses have their header rsimulating sidesa.at the face of the wall, while the units of the other courses arereversed to present their stretcher simulating faces b, an English bondeffect is created, as clearly shown in Fig. 11. If desired, a falsemortar joint may be provided in an end surface of the brick D simi-larto the false mortar joint 28 of brick C, so that the simulation ofheaders may be continued to the extremities of the wall through the endfaces of the overlapping corner bricks of the Wall structure.

huseful at the corners of the wall to give a quoin It will be obviousfrom the above that in the verse side of a wall, caused by the reversingof the units in the wall and which wall is one unit in thickness.

Although the foregoing description covers the particular application'ofthe invention to a wall unit, it is to be understood that the inventionis equally applicable to other types of construction units, such as facetile,` floor bricks, etc., and that various modifications and changes inrespect to shape, size, and finish may be resorted to within the scopeof the appended claims, without departure from the basic principles ofthe invention. v

Having thus described the invention, I claim:

1. As a new article of manufacture a clay load bearing brick having atleast two opposite side faces of substantially corresponding exteriorfinish, whereby any one o f said faces is adapted to serve as theobverse face of the brick, said side faces being dimensioned to give theappearance of brick, one of said side faces only having a groove thereinextending` the length of the shortest dimension of said face and spacedfrom one end of the brick a distance approximately onethircl of thelength of the longest dimension of said face for the receptionof mortarto give a false mortar joint, the other side face of the brick beingundivided to present a smooth unbroken surface throughout its area,whereby a plurality of said bricks may be laid in stretcher coursesthroughout an entire wall area and by selecting the proper side face ofeach brick various standard bond designs may be obtained.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a clay load bearing brick having atleast two opposite side faces and one end face of substantiallycorresponding exterior nish, whereby any one of said faces is adapted toserve as the obverse face of the brick; said faces being so dimensionalas to give the appearance of brick, one of said side faces only having agroove therein extending the length of the shortest dimension of itsface and spaced from one end of the brick a distance approximatelyone-third of the length of the longest dimension of said face for thereception of mortar to give a false mortar joint, the other side face ofthe brick being undivided to present a smooth unbroken surfacethroughout itsarea', whereby a plurality of said bricks may be laid instretcher courses throughout an entire wall area and by selecting theproper side face' of each brick various standard bnd designs may beobtained, said end facev having one groove only therein extending thefull length of its shortest dimension and equally dividing the face intotwo sections, said groove being adapted to receive mortar toform a falsemortar joint, whereby a quoin effect may be produced at the corners of awall.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a clay load bearing brick having atleast four 'faces thereof,

namely, two opposite side faces and two end faces, of substantiallycorresponding exterior finish, whereby any one of said faces is adaptedto serve as the obverse face of the brick; said side faces being ofgreater length in one direction than the end faces in a correspondingdirection, and said side and end faces being of the same dimension in adirection at right angles to said first direction but less than thelongest dimension of said side faces, one of said side faces only havinga single groove thereon extending the length of the shortest dimensionof its face for the reception ofI mortar to give a falsemortar joint andspaced from one endof the brick to give said face the appearance of astretcher and header, the other side face of the brick being undividedto present a smooth unbroken surface throughout its area, whereby aplurality of said bricks may be laid in stretcher course fashionthroughout an entire wall area but permittingl various standard bonddesigns to be produced in any horizontal course and which includesstretchers and' headers or by reversing the bricks presenting to thesurface of the wall a complete stretcher course and, further, wherebythe same bond design is produced on opposite faces of a wall constructedof a single brick thickness wherr said bricks are so reversed inadjacent courses.

4. As a new article of manufacture, a clay load bearing brick having atleast four faces thereof, namely, two opposite side faces and two endfaces, of substantially corresponding exterior finish, whereby any oneof said faces is adapted to serve as the obverse face of the brick, saidside faces being of greater length in one direction than the end facesin a corresponding direction, said side and end faces being of the samedimension in a direction at right angles to said first direction butless than the longest dimension of said side faces, one of said sidefaces only having two grooves therein extending the length of theshortest dimension of said face,

each groove being spaced approximately onethird the distance from eachend respectively of the longest dimension of said surface for thereception of mortar to give a false mortar joint, the other side face ofthe lbrick being undivided to present a smooth unbroken surfacethroughout its area, whereby a plurality of said bricks may be laid instretcher course fashion throughout an entire wall area but permittingthe production of an all header course to be presented in the face ofany course or by reversing th'e bricks presenting in the surface of thewall a complete stretcher course and, further, whereby the same bonddesign is produced on opposite faces of a wall constructed in a singlebrick thickness when said bricks are so reversed in adjacent courses.

JOHN J. CANTWELL.

